Friday, December 13, 2013

The Nightmare of Cell Phones on Planes

Anyone who travels very much shudders at the thought of being stuck on a long flight beside a chronic cell phone user. For North America, that has been banned by the authorities because calls on planes could interfere with ground based cell stations. However, newer technologies have changed all that. It is now possible to avoid such interference and it is likely that the bans will come down.

However, the good news is that the airlines need to invest in the technology for their planes and allow voice calls to be made. Many of them are reluctant to do that because of the customer service nightmare that could result.

Cell service is already allowed on planes in various other parts of the world, notably in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The experience there is that most cell phone users use text and email rather than voice, at least in part and maybe largely because voice calls are treated as international data roaming charges and anyone who has been stuck with an international data roaming cell phone bill knows what that is all about. The rates are scandalously high.

Airlines will be able to allow texting and other data usages of cell phones and block voice communications. There's a pretty good chance that they will do just that. There's a very strong demand for texting, internet and other data usage on flights, but a lot of resistance about voice calls.

So right now we are entering into a time of change and many travellers will be watching what happens with bated breath. Here's a great article on the subject.

Monday, December 02, 2013

Is Privacy Sustainable?

Vint Cerf, acknowledged as one of (perhaps the) father of the Internet, spoke about privacy last week and made some very good points. He was speaking in the context of the Internet of Things, a developing phenomenon under which the coverage of the internet is growing to include the tracking and management of many objects, such as inventories and refrigerator contents.

He pointed out that as internet usage expands, privacy is going to take a beating. More importantly, he pointed out that privacy is a product of urbanization and the industrial revolution; that in small towns, privacy does not exist. A good point. It exists to some extent, but anyone who lives in a small town can tell you that it is much more limited than it is in big cities. Your neighbours know much more about you and what you are doing.

The internet is changing the nature of big city life by making it, in a sociological sense, more like a small town. That's because people willingly put so much of their life out there on social media. That will expand as the internet of things grows.

That means a maintenance of privacy will require a change in behaviour, not stronger laws. Another point that Mr. Cerf made. Here's a write-up on his talk.

It's quite possible that no amount of behaviour change will preserve the post industrial level of privacy. Welcome to the technological small town, or as Marshall McLuhan would have put it - The Global Village.